1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manual safety vegetable cutter for both domestic and professional use.
According to the invention, the word “vegetables” should be understood in a very broad sense and the vegetables which are cut may be not only any type of vegetable in the strict sense, but also fruit or other foods suitable for being cut.
2. Description of Related Art
There are currently on the market various types of manual vegetable cutter which have in common that they are not very practical and expose their users to serious risks of cuts to the hands.
At the same time, there are also many vegetable cutters or electric food processors of a versatile nature intended for domestic use or for industries or collectives.
As a general rule, however, these are sophisticated appliances which, in addition to their high cost, often have the disadvantage of being inconvenient to use and also difficult to clean.
In order to overcome this disadvantage, in accordance with the document FR 2 825 043, a simple, practical and inexpensive manual vegetable cutter has been proposed which enables the cutting characteristics to be varied selectively.
This known device, which is referred to by experts as a “slicer” comprises:                a frame which is supported on feet, which can preferably be folded up, and which is provided with two parallel longitudinal uprights which define, on the one hand, two guiding rails for a carriage which can be moved back and forth in translation and which delimits, at the inner portion thereof, a space for receiving vegetables to be cut, and which are portion thereof, a space for receiving vegetables to be cut, and which are connected, on the other hand, by means of a plate which is mounted so as to be moveable in translation between these uprights, perpendicularly to the displacement axis of the carriage in order to allow the cutting width to be adjusted, and        at least one cutting blade which is mounted transversely between the longitudinal uprights facing an edge or first edge of the plate for adjusting the cutting width in order to define an aperture for the passage of the cut vegetables.        
In a vegetable cutter of this type known from the prior art, the carriage is constituted, on the one hand, by a cylindrical guide chamber which is open at the upper portion thereof and which is provided, at the lower portion thereof, with a substantially rectangular collar, two of the opposing edges of which are folded down in order to define two grooves which co-operate with the guiding rails and, on the other hand, by a push-button which fits on or in the guide chamber and which is intended to be gripped manually by the user in order to move the carriage along the guiding rails with a pressure being applied continuously to the vegetables which are contained in the receiving space in order to press them against the cutting blade and allow them to be cut by this blade.
This safety vegetable cutter has the advantage of enabling many different types of preparation to be readily performed (smooth or corrugated discs, crinkle-cutting, dicing, . . . ) and has therefore been very well received by users.
It also has many other advantages which are connected, in particular, to its compactness for storage, and also its easy maintenance, particularly using a dishwasher.
However, it has been found from experience that the adjusting system for the cutting blades can be difficult to manipulate and may also expose users to cutting risks.